The present invention relates to the use of apparatus for heating a patient particularly although not solely for optimum location of a patient in relation to a radiant warmer.
One method of warming patients during surgical procedures is to use a radiant warmer positioned above the patient""s head or other body parts having good blood perfusion for example. For example, in our U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,944 we describe an apparatus for supporting and heating an infant using an infrared radiant heater, Typically the radiant heater will have a reflector such that the infrared radiation emitted by the heater will have a relatively narrow beam.
The problem with this method of warming can be positioning the patient relative to the heater element to ensure that enough, but not too much, power is delivered. Another difficulty is knowing how well perfused the skin is, under the warmer.
One way of achieving this in prior art devices is by indicating the height using a tape measure or other measure of distance to attempt to get the optimum level of radiation. This does not allow for inadvertent low or high settings when beds are raised or lowered or accidental heater movement during procedures. Then the patient is manually positioned laterally to a point where the surgical team estimate the radiation beam is roughly the target heating area.
It would therefore be desirable to have a radiant warmer in which it was easy to locate the patient directly in the path of the radiation focussed from the radiant heater. It would also be desirable to ensure that the patient is located at the optimum distance from the radiant heater in order to ensure that the correct level of heating is achieved.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a system for heating a patient which goes some way to achieving the abovementioned desiderata, or which will at least provide the public or industry with a useful choice.
Accordingly in a first aspect the present invention consists in an apparatus for heating a patient, said patient in use supported by a surface, said apparatus comprising:
a radiant heating means positioned at a distance from said patient,
control means, adapted to either estimate or determine the location of said patient and depending on said location vary the energization of said radiant heating means or adapted to provide an indication of a predetermined location or provide indication of the absence of said patient in said predetermined location.
In a second aspect the present invention consists in an apparatus adapted to detect radiant heat energy incident on a surface comprising:
a body portion; and
at least two temperature sensing means wherein an unmasked temperature sensing means is located on a first side of said body portion and sensing means is located on the opposite side of said body portion.
To those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. The disclosures and the descriptions herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in day sense limiting.
The invention consists in the foregoing and also envisages constructions of which the following gives examples.